Messi Insults Linesman, Suspended Four Games During World Cup Qualifying

For anyone that’s played sports – of any variety – you know how infuriating when a referee makes a call that you don’t agree with. For professionals, this happens on a daily basis. In the heat of the moment, anger and frustration might get the best of a player and then he/she will lash out at the person making the call. Sometimes these calls are right, but sometimes they’re wrong. They are human after all.

Most recently, Argentinian superstar, Lionel Messi, got so heated at a call made by a linesman that he directed the words ‘la concha de tu madre’ at him, which when taken literally, means ‘the shell of your mother.’ As an insult though, which Messi clearly intended it to be, translates to ‘your mother’s c**t’.

You can see the event unfold below, starting at the 8:28 mark:

At the time the linesman, Emerson Augusto do Carvalho, even tried to calm Messi down, but that’s only because he didn’t understand what Messi was saying. It wasn’t until he read it in the press that he realized Messi was swearing at him. Afterwards, the officials revised their match report to FIFA on Monday, March 27th, but didn’t issue Messi’s suspension until 6 hours prior to Argentina’s World Cup qualifying match against Bolivia on Tuesday. The first surprise was the timing, the second was the length of the penalty.

Argentina is looking to appeal the lengthy suspension, but the damage is already felt as they lost 2-0 without Messi. To add insult to injury, Messi was also fined £8,100 for his actions.

Ben hails from Vancouver and is an avid snowboarder whose secret passion is scrapbooking. When he's not too busy gluing memories on paper, he likes to read and write about the exciting world of sports. Besides having fun in the water or working out at the gym, he also enjoys learning new things about fitness, health, and nutrition.